


what you see

by kiyala



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Jaegercon Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 09:43:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiyala/pseuds/kiyala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Appearances can be deceiving. Newt knows that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	what you see

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "ocean" square of [Jaegercon Bingo](http://jaegercon.tumblr.com/post/57225250646/).

If there's one thing Newt knows—actually no, fuck that, he knows a _lot_ of things, thank you very much. He's a genius for fuck's sake.

So here's one of the things he knows: appearances? They're deceiving. You can trust him on that, because he's a walking example of it. The more convinced you are that you understand something, the more likely it is that you have absolutely no idea. It's one of the reasons he likes science so much. It evens things out. He starts off knowing he's got no idea. If he gets lucky, he walks away from it with a better understanding. If not that, then a better idea.

But yeah, it's something he learns very early on. Don't just trust what you see. He's never really liked the ocean. Lakes, he could do. He'd gone fishing as a child and he could handle sitting in a boat in the middle of a lake just fine. Lakes have fish, lakes have mud, lakes have a bottom. The ocean is a lot more complicated than that.

Every time he'd gotten near one, he'd wonder at its depth and what secrets were hidden there. The only time he'd like the ocean was when he'd make theories about the aquatic life that had yet to be discovered, debated about the existence of giant squids, talked about how great it would be if there was something really _big_ down there. 

So the first Kaiju makes land before any of the world's scientists manage to find a giant squid, but it's big and it's terrifying, so Newt supposes it still counts.

It proves what he's known all along. The ocean can seem calm at times, but they all know better now. There'd been a flurry of theories before anyone ever found out about the Breach, suggesting that Trespasser had been a sea monster of some kind. Newt had dutifully begun learning everything he could from his colleagues in marine biology, before they realised that the Kaiju were actually aliens. 

Newt thinks about the Breach sometimes, sitting there at the bottom of the ocean, glowing the way it does in the pictures that have been taken of it, like a pit straight down to hell. No matter how calm the waves might be, Newt knows it's there. The whole world knows it's there and it shows. 

There are no more cruise ships, nobody willing to risk the Pacific Ocean for a bit of recreation. No ships unless it's absolutely necessary and even then, it's not easy finding crew. Nothing like the time Newt was forced to go on a three-day cruise and spent all of his time alternating between being seasick and attempting to distract himself with books. No more beaches, no more long days of being forced to sit in the sun, with relatives that don't appreciate him stomping through their sandcastles as he roars. That doesn't feel like his childhood as much as it feels like a different life entirely.

The fucked up thing, Newt thinks as he stands outside the Shatterdome and watches the ocean—watches the waves crash against the bay doors with their painted numbers, while everything looks deceptively calmer out towards the horizon—is that this could actually be the end of the world. Down at the bottom of the ocean is a door and at this point, they might as well be laying out the welcome mats, for all the good the world is doing itself right now, building walls with the juvenile mindset of _if I can't see you, then you can't see me_.

They're down to this. One last Shatterdome, stripped down to its bare bones. One last chance to make a difference. They're small, they're mismatched and ill-fitting, but they'll be fine. Newt knows it. They might not look like much, but appearances are deceiving.

The ocean looks beautiful.


End file.
